The Road to the Iowa Incident

So I have been playing and painting as of late.  I have not really started on project Francis as of yet.  I am waiting on the painting competition rules and such from Adepticon before I start.  With the Golden Demon replacing the Crystal Brush I may have to paint up a GW model.  So I have been working on some stuff I may take to the Iowa Incident.  Its tentative me going as of right now as I am not working. Its hard holding a job down being Bi polar. I plan on talking about that next time I write.  I think it may shed some light on things about me as a person or somebody in your gaming group.  It may be helpful.  I digress though.  The Iowa Incident MK6 it taking place later in October.  I am deciding if I want to take Onyx Contact Force, NCA or Vanilla Combined. Its hard to decide...


Last year I took NCA and went 3-1-1.  I think it had a lot to do with me deciding to play them at the last minute.  The changes in army have me thinking new strategies now though.  some very nice ones that I think nobody has fully explored yet.  Mainly the amount of Bolts you can get into a list and the fact you can run 2 fire teams of them.  You have some more options in terms of profiles now too.  A chain of command option as well as the killer hacker are nice additions to the tool box.  The points reductions also help.  The new engineer profile also appeals to me.  It gives me a specialist that I can tie into a rather hardy delivery system to push buttons.  Being able to run a core fire team of ORC troopers is also appealing.  I don't know if anybody noticed that.  They are AVA 5 too so it can be a pure fire team.
I think my favorite change though is the FTO Aquila Guard.  Being a wild card, I can throw him anywhere.  Bolt team, ORC team, Fusilier team.  Its all good.  I have a lot of things I can do now with the update.  NCA is also my favorite army so its at the forefront of my choices.

Onyx I have been having a hard time with, but I have been painting Combined Army stuff so I have been considering them. I played them the first year I went to Iowa and did not do so well.  Granted they were new and I didn't really have a grasp on them yet.  In fact I don't think I have an adequate grasp on them even now.  I need to address my list building.  I hardly ever use the infiltrating units and my ranged game is never good.  I try to pack to many toys and fall for certain fire team traps. For instance, I love the Umbra and Xenodron Haris team.  I seem to always to forget to have good ranged support for them.  The trouble is squeezing stuff into the lists and having 10 orders. If I include the toys I really want it doesn't leave room for anything except unidrons.  Including a TAG in Onyx requires a lot of thought.  They are an elite force and I think I am playing them wrong.  My play style has been shaped by PanO.  I can't play onyx the same way and thus my struggle.

Vanilla Combined Army I have a decent record with. I feel better not dealing with Fire Teams.  I do have one habit though.  I tend to play the Avatar a lot.  Granted I do build the list around the Avatar,  That is the list is geared completely to supporting him.  Ranged covering fire, plenty of Engineers to keep him up and running, and killer hackers to prevent enemy hackers from impeding him.  I do love the Charonatid as well as the Anthematic.  These tend to go into my 2nd lists.  I am a slow painter that lacks motivation, but I like to play painted armies.  I may have to overcome this to play what works the best for the list.  I will paint, but I won't hurry.  I tend to have less motivation to paint if I am in a hurry or under a deadline.

I think the painting thing effects what I bring to tournaments.  I want a painted army, so I make a list that uses my painted models even if it isn't the most tactically sound.  This often results in NCA hitting the table.  I think I am going to explore Vanilla Combined Army more and make them the forerunner.  More games to get a feel for them.  It gives me an excuse to paint some units I use a lot in my lists as well.  Can you believe Dr. worm is not painted, but his nurse worm is?  This needs to change.  So for now, the current choice is Vanilla Combined Army.  Thanks for letting me think out loud

Until next time.....

Remember Dramos and....

Join the E.I., resistance is futile!